


The Second Death

by lesbomancy



Category: Destiny (Video Game)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-03
Updated: 2017-11-03
Packaged: 2019-01-29 03:44:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 835
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12622432
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lesbomancy/pseuds/lesbomancy
Summary: After Lex's first death (and kill) she suffers another on her path to the Last City.





	The Second Death

Lex's breathing was ragged and pained, the bloodstained rock falling out of her hands and onto the dirt. Before her was her first kill, the bringer of her first death. The spot under her eye still stung in a way; it felt off. Though could she really have asked for anything better? She was killed and was brought back to life. She tore her helmet off and sucked in the cold night's air through her teeth, still growling and groaning occasionally as she rolled onto her back and stared up at the sky. She let out a wild scream of victory and pounded each of her balled fists into the dirt.

Immortality. The Ghost never said it'd still hurt.

"Please... Guardian! Stop screaming! You'll draw more! There's a cave nearby, we need to m-move, move fast as possible!"

She struggled back onto her knees, dry and sticky saliva hanging out of her mouth as she retched repeatedly. With a nudge to her butt from Ghost she managed to stand up, like a baby horse taking its first steps.

"Too-... too tired."

"You, you, you can be tired later! I'm detecting MULTIPLE signatures in the cave, as well as a Marauder dialect of the Fallen language. Save your Light for a fight that won't be so dangerous!"

Lex put one boot in front of the other, trundling off a rocky hillside and into a field that mostly obscured her person. Her rations were long gone by now, as were most sources of fresh water. Ghost could heal her, but it didn't mean she enjoyed or felt particularly great about the reoccurring instances of radiation poisoning. She did hear a far-off something as she kept going, though Ghost made no mention of it. That had to be a good sign, though her boot landing on something metal and springy ended that line of thought prematurely.

"WATCH OUT!"

Click

She didn't hear anything but a white flash enveloped her vision and she was... gone. That same hurtful limbo of when the bullet pierced her skull. The void of nothingness was... calm in a certain way. It felt understood. Again, like so many times before, the proverbial white rabbit lingered just out of view. Something here was familiar, something in this darkness and depth where the Light was dimmer. She didn't know what she was reaching out with - her soul? Did she have a soul? The lines of science and magic by her own definition were so blurred, so... thin and Ghost had only begun teaching her the basics.

Her senses became bombarded with Light and life. Her Ghost talking loudly. Though that nebulousness was there, that Void that she reached for. It played along with her fingertips, differently than the natural shimmer of her Awoken complexion. She turned her hand over and over and tried to focus it into... something. Ghost prattled on in a panicked, stuttery tone. There were Fallen approaching, a dozen of them. Something in her had changed; not a physical property but that of her mind. She was a Guardian and a few deaths were all she needed to get in touch with the shadowy essence of the galaxy.

Lex turned around in the field, drawing her hands out to both sides. Ghost exclaimed... many things, almost all of them a frightened panic until she noticed Lex's forearms engulfed in a smoke-like cloud. It materialized into an aegis along her left arm and she instinctively held it like a shield, waiting until the Fallen were close. She closed her eyes and listened, the Fallen's footfalls displacing dried grass and making it easy to count. Ghost was staring at her in awe, invisible, a little ways back. Maybe in another life, she hunted without sight. Or maybe she was a soldier, a warrior. Something.

But right now a single word called to her: Sentinel.

She flung her arm towards the nearest Fallen, the aegis dismounting. It cleaved the creature in two before bouncing in a straight line between all of the others nearby, her head jerking to each one moments before they were cut into pieces or thrown violently aside. The hiss-like insectoid dead gurgles put a smile on her face and in less than ten seconds the aegis of Void energy flew through its last target, bounced off the floor and flew into the sky. It dissipated quickly, the victory leaving Lex with a headache and more fatigue than before. She quietly quaked in her boots at all that happened, taking in deep and laborious breaths while Ghost unveiled herself and bounced in the air before her Guardian.

"I can't-... I can't! I can't BELIEVE IT! Guardian, you-... THAT! WOW!" I... oh, if I needed sleep I would need a nap. Can we pretty, pretty please get going now before more show up?

"Yes," Lex said firmly. A smile crossed her face as she turned northwards and began walking. "Though I don't think we need to worry so much about a gun just yet."


End file.
